


What 'love' is? Hell if I know. I forgot, I swear.

by Marta_Ayanami (orphan_account)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, Axel always lies, Axel and Roxas friendship, Axel lied, Damsels in distress and guys in distress are both fine in stories to me, Day 171, F/M, I'm not gonna avoid either, Isa is also a liar, M/M, What is 'love', and Roxas is a child, and easy to spot, because if my fics were not canon-compliant in tone and climate so to say; I would feel weird, because my fics are usually canon-compliant in 'tone' and 'climate' I would say, children ask you about stuff you try to repress, ditto Kairi/Sora, ditto Namine/Repliku, headcanons galore, in my mind at least, no kissing onscreen, no sex onscreen, not everything is chronological but that's true of all my fics, so what did you expect, sort of potentially AU but let's see, two of the main charas are OCs - Isa's parents, warning: Lea/Isa is all shades and shapes is one of my OTPs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-06-09 05:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6891619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Marta_Ayanami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On his 171th day of life, Roxas asked one of his two best friends what that mysterious 'love' power was. </p><p>What a shitty question, his best friend thought, but never said it outloud.</p><p>They say children are cruel in their innocence.</p><p>______<br/>TBC in: Chapter 5: Sanctuary</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I know Days' plot by heart (;)) from watching various LPs of it, and from watching the movie from 1.5. But rn I'm still playing Days for the first time ever, and I didn't plan on writing anything when Day 171 happened... but then, Day 171 happened, and wrote itself. So don't blame me! ;)

**Prologue: Childen ask the damnedest things.**

 

_You need a heart, man.  
_

_And you'd need to stop wearing the gloves for a second or two, wearing them all day is just fu--- - okay, maybe we don't need Roxas asking what 'f****' is, so I won't say it outloud, man._

 

_You need a heart, man._

 

_My excuse?_

_You bet. But for me, or for_

\--him.

 

_Hell if I know._

 

_I forgot._

 

_'s what I'd say in a court._

_Heh._

_As if losing a heart was my fault. Or his._

_Still, would be nice to see them in a court. But that didn't happen, so now he's the judge, and I'm the executioner, we make our own court of law._

 

_Which suits us juuust fine._

 

_Us?_

 

_Axel, what is love?_

 

_You're better of not knowing, is what I won't say aloud. Hope you get a clue._

 

_Well, unless you're in love with Xion. Seems like nice enough girl, even without a Heart, so go for it, boy! Maybe she won't break yours._

 

_Which I won't say aloud, either._

 

_Man, what is love? In one word. Oh, I know! I'll tell you when you're older. In one word, love is a disaster, you should wish one on your enemies. Now that's a power._

 

_Dammit. What is it with this stray puppy always poking at my perfectly healed scars? Why did I take him under my wing, again?_

 

_Dammit._

 

**You mean, like, if they're best friends?**

 

_F**** you, Roxas._

 

_Is what I didn't say today. Congratulations, I'm an responsible adult guy! When did that happen, S--I---?_

_Oh, f*** you, too. I won't ask you about that, even in my damned brain, see?_

 

_Damn you._

 

**So then... love is like a step above friends?**

 

 

_That's it. Next time I'm eating sea salt with Rox, I'm wearing my earplugs. Though I think Sa ïx confiscated them. Of course he would._

 

_And, Roxas? How come you do that? Talk like a real person?_

_As if you knew how to scratch at one's nonexistent Heart._

_Ehh, you... what is it with me and stray puppies, huh, right, S---Isa?_


	2. 0.01 / Before Chapter 1 /How did it all begin, anyway? Who was the idiot?

**Before Chapter 1 - How Did it All Begin, anyway? // Who's more foolish, Isa... the fool or he who follows the fool? So don't blame _me,_ buddy**

 

**0.01 - Point of no return?**

**0.01. - Point of my foolish ideas**

**Oh, what the hell**

 

 

"Isa, Isa, hey, Isa, I just had the most brilliant idea!"

The red-headed preteen looked ready to pounce on his blueheaded companion, and maybe the fact that the Isa in question was using ink right now was the only thing in Radiant Garden that stopped him from doing so.

"Mhm? So, when will we die?"

"Huh?"

"Your last _brilliant idea_ ended up in us in the river, _got it memorised?_ And you didn't even know how well I could swim."

Lea pouted, crossing his arms and turning halfway away in a faux-sulk that he's recently learned from his new favourite movies about the hero with a boomerang and a chakram, who traversed many different worlds to fight evil. The redhead's tried using boomerang, but in the end, it proved to difficult. So he's decided to fight with two chakrams instead. Well... it could pass as chakrams. From far away. Really, really, really far away. It wasn't his fault that when he asked for a real one in the armory, he was denied it - and any other weapons - just because he was still young! There had to be a word for it, he was certain. For needless discrimination and oppression based just on his age! He'd learn the word, and get it memorised. (Well, if it was the case of being old, he'd just call it old geezerism. But instead, he was too young.)

"I knew too, that you swim. You're a moon fanatic, and moon controls waves, so of course you swim, Isa!"

"What sort of expectation is that? Should I expect that you'll become a traveller just because you're a redhead, loser?"

"Eh? I don't get it."

"The light spectrum, idiot. Get it memorised."

Oh, how hated it when Isa was being a know it all! Fine, he'd read his whole physics book, even though he's never done it for school!

"Light spectrum, you say. Okay, I'll know by tomorrow!"

"Nah, knowing you, you'll forget. Just remember this: red travels the farthest... though that's an oversimplification. Though that's fine, you're simple."

"Thank--- what?! Did you just insult me again?" With Isa, he was never sure.

"So. Your brilliant idea. Tell me, so that I can start saving for your funeral."

"Well, and what about _your_ funeral, wise guy?" Ha! Now he caught him. Even genius Isa forgot things sometimes. ( _Though he'd never forget Lea, which is what truly mattered. Oooh, he had to find some non-sappy way to say that, one of these days, or Isa would always laugh at him!_ )

 

"You."

Damn. Of course the wise guy would have the perfect answer. But---

"Wait, wait. If we both died, how would I pay for your funeral?"

"Easy, you wouldn't die. I'd give my life for yours. Think that's fair."

"Ah, right, of course. So: for my brilliant idea: we're going to go inside the castle!!"

Isa sighed. "That's nothing new. We _were_ inside the castle, _I_ was the one who dragged you into the castle's library."

"That was just the castle's library, that's booooring! I want to see the real _castle, real real castle,_ what only the King and his Apprentices see!"

"Ah. I should've known. Alright, fine, we're going to see the _real real castle_. I've been curious, anyway. But look out for that Braig guy, he gives me a bad feeling."

"Nah, Dilan's the true villain, if we're casting them as our bad guys."

"No, it's Braig.'

"Dilan!"

"Braig."

"Dilan!"

Isa smirked. "Aeleus."

"What? No way, Aeleus is the good guy, it's Brai---Dilan!"

"You've said 'Braig'. So I win, loser."

"Yeah, yeah, it's my idea anyway, so _I_ win, and we're going tomorrow, get it memorised!"

"Mhm."

When Lea left his house, Isa sighed. Of course it was obvious and all, but he thought, somehow, that, such a sincere confession... that Lea would maybe hear it over the sound of Lea's plenty stupid ideas? That maybe he'd appreciate it?

Oh, well. Of course Lea never heard a thing over the sound of his own (Lea's) voice, that was just how it is, wouldn't be Lea otherwise. And maybe, just maybe, it was already obvious? Maybe it was a requirement of being a friend... a price of being a friend? Lea was his only friend (and Lea had plenty friends), so what did he know of it, anyway? Maybe being friend already implied his confession, years before it happened? If so, then Isa was a lousy friend himself. Because if someone asked him a year ago - he wouldn't have died for Lea. Half a year ago? Maaaybe.

_I'd give my life for yours._

Now the question is: if there was ever such a trade - though there wouldn't be, even though he was sincere, such things never happened in real life - but the question was: were their lives truly equal, when Lea always shined almost as much as the little redhaired girls they sometimes met, in Isa's eyes? Could they possibly be equal?

Well, if there ever was such a trade, Isa would pretend they were equal. He was good at bargaining, after all. His father was a merchant, once upon a time.

 

 


	3. Chapter One - He Couldn't Do It Alone, But Why Am I Worried?

**1 - He Couldn't Do It Alone, but Why Am I So Worried?**

 

"A book?"

"Yeah! It's in Merlin's house. I've overheard - it gives superpowers! If we have those powers, Dilan and that guy whose names is too weird to say can't throw us out again, Isa!"

And that face. That _look how smart I am_ loser face expression. So irritating, but somehow, Isa liked seeing that face. It only meant that today, Lea was shining so brightly that it was almost unbearable and Isa never knew when he'd get a stroke from that.

Shining, huh? Yeah, like in a full moon - no, like in a Sun - there was very little darkness in Lea, Isa knew. Just a little, he supposed - a few lazy habits, a few lies - a small darkness that was really a shade.

And Isa knew all about Darkness and Light. His father was a merchant, true, but his mother, long dead now, according to his father, had been - a knight. A knight with a blade the shape of Ven's blade. And that's why Isa knew, when he first saw Ven, that Lea shouldn't talk to Ven. And he tried to stop him, but it had been too late. And now, Lea would be a knight someday, certainly. How could he not?

 

Very well, then. Isa would become a Knight, too. Apparently - according to his dad - mother died to save a friend, another knight. Very well, then. He'd become a knight of that ancient blade just like Lea, when the time came. And if one of them was to die, it'd be Isa.

 

Still, Lea didn't know yet that they were going to be knights in the future. And so, Isa wasn't going to tell him yet. Stupid Lea, why did he have to find a puppy who was a knight-in-training? Couldn't he talk to Kairi, or something?

 

No, wait. Kairi was no knight, but she was an important Light prin---

 

"Radiant Garden to Isa, hey! Are you on the moon or here?"

"On the moon," Isa replied, smirking slightly. "So, a book, to awaken you? Let it go. You're too young for your awakening."

"Awaken? Hey, I like the sound of that! I wanna be awake, I wanna be awake!"

Dammit. He shouldn't have said 'awake'. Now what? Would Lea become a knight the moment he touched this book? And where....

"Lea! Wait!"

Lea already was running. To Merlin's house. Apparently expecting Isa to follow.

Dammit. Some Ventus, some Xehanort (if Xehanort wasn't a knight of a blade, then Isa was blind), some monsters, some closed Palace doors for a week now, some--- did the universe conspire to make Lea a knight today?! Isa wasn't ready to become a knight today, the didn't want to die yet!

He ran into the wizard's house after Lea. Lea was already stupidly touching the book. Why wasn't Merlin there? Ah, of course, Lea must've seen him leave somewhere, which is why they were here now. Damn!

"Hey, Isa, something tingled me inside! Do you think I'm stronger now?"

"No."

"Iiiiiisa! Look, see, when I touch it again, and again, and again, don't you see it glowing!"

"No." Yeah, he could see it glowing. Fortunately, Lea wasn't glowing yet. Good.

"And again, look, loo---"

"Lea!"

Lea suddenly disappeared, and after a split second when Isa's heart almost refused to beat, imagining the worst, he suddenly understood, in the moonlight that came through clouds (thank the Moon they went into the house at night, not at daytime) - Lea wasn't gone, not really. Lea still existed, Lea was just in the book.

Isa flopped on the floor, sighing with relief.

Now - how to come inside the book and find Lea?

Probably not just by touching it irresponsibly, he imagined, so.... good question.

"Good question, indeed."

Wait, who? What was the man - Xehanort was the name, wasn't it? - doing in the doorway.

Isa almost bristled. "And? Can you use your blade and go into the book and get Lea? I'd pay you. If not, go away."

"My blade? How curious. Tell me of my blade."

"Tell you?" Now Isa didn't understand.

"Indeed. Tell me of my blade."

"O-okay. If you get Lea."

"Yes. I shall get your Lea if you tell me of my... Blade. Blade..."

Isa shivered. "Uhm... okay. I'll tell you all I know, thanks to my mother."

"Indeed? Do tell."


	4. Chapter 1.5 - I didnt' get it memorised, coz 's was creepy, man.

**Chapter 1.5 - Interlude - I didn't get it memorized for a reason // First warnings signs? Naahh... who cares?**

 

"Isa? Man, am I glad you're here, I didn't know how to leave this world - this book! And 've gotten tired of jumping with that tiger, even if he's a cool guy!"

Man, Pooh was a boring bear, but Tigger was a really neat tiger. They were friends now, he and Tigger! Though he still lost to Tigger at jumping.

Isa seemed unexpectadly stern. Stern even for Isa, that is. Why? And what was up with his eyes, anyway? Naaahh, he probably just cried cried, because he thought the eeeeevil book ate his poor loser Lea.

So Lea sniggered.

And then, something unexpected happened.

Isa - Isa with eyes that weren't red from crying, but strangely yellowish, almost? - the very same Isa came up to him and slapped him across the face, intense anger, frustation and... fear... in his now yellowish eyes.

And then, it was as if Isa was spent. Exhausted.

"'m glad you're safe."

"Eheh, you were scared about something happening to me, Isa. Cause now you're being too straight with me."

Isa shrugged at Lea's trivial words, turned away, and suddenly, disappeared in a swirl of dark... something."

Well, it was pretty. And seemed to fit Isa.

Still, something about this, just seemed unsettl---

 

"H-hey, Isa, you have a fancy new teleport wizard powers, and you forgot to take me?! How am _I_ supposed to leave the book now?!"

 

The book spit Lea out on its own. After twenty eight hours.

 

_Isa, you jerk. Why did you come for me if you didn't come for me? I'm starving!_

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 2 - And then there was Xehanort. Maybe I took puppies, but Isa apparently took bulldogs. I didn't like it.

**Chapter 2 - And then there Was Xehanort Guy. I Bet He Didn't Even Have REAL Amnesia, the Jerk.**

 

"Who?!"

"You know who." Isa muttered.

Meanwhile Lea's younger sister, yawning, opened the door loudly and yelled at her bro and his, as far as she was made aware by her boyfriend of the term, 'fuckbuddy'. "Keep it quiet on the Saturday morning, you losers! I wanna sleep! I was up all night with Fred!"

"Well, if you wanna spend whole night kissing Fred, don't yell at me for that! 'm just talking to my best friend, who's apparently breaking up with me and throwing me away for a new amnesiac buddy!"

"You're saying it as if I a have a lot of 'amnesiac buddies', Lea. And that's just b******* and you know it. Besides, Xehanort's no friend of mine. I just thought that _you_ wanted to get inside the Castle and you know what? _He_ lives in the Castle. Should I spell it out out for you?"

Lea's sister gave up, recognising the signs of lover's quarrel, and realised there will be no silence today. Oh, well. Maybe she should go to Fred and ask him about new black monsters around town. Yeah, her boyfriend knew no more about them that she did, but he liked to pretend that he knew a lot, and that was cute. Huh... did her brother's guy... did Isa always have such yellow eyes? Strange, she could've sworn - oh, well, who cared. He probably always had eyes like that, and her brother surely had _that_ memorised. Still, she could've sworn---

"Isa?"

Huh, her older twin brother sounded strangely concerned now. If it was about the eyes, she'd be spooked--

"Isa? Were your eyes always yellow?"

"Yellow? My eyes aren't yellow, you moron."

"Ooh, I see. Must be a trick of light."

"Yeah!" Ela, Lea's sister, joined in, trying to grin as stupidly as her twin sometimes. "Yea, it's just a trick of light. I saw them amber a second ago, and green or blue too seconds ago, too!"  It was true. She learned how to lie with truth - she didn't remember when. Her bro learned that, too, also not sure when.

"Yellow..." Isa muttered, barely audibly. "But that's not - is it? Xeha--" Isa trailed of, and Ela decided to leave the room. Something was happening, and she didn't like it. Her bro always wanted things to happen, but she, she preferred normal, usual, boring life, with girlfriends, families, and boyfriends. Honestly.

"Isa?"

"What, Lea?"

"Huhm... it's nothing. So, your Xehanort will get us into the Castle?"

Isa nodded.

And Lea, for the first time in his life, felt jealous.

 

_I wanted you to say 'Xehanort isn't mine, and the fact that I apparently bought the same contact lenses, is a sheer coincidence, you dolt. I wanted to hear you say that._

 

_This was the first time you've ever disappointed me._

_First._

_And so, I ignored it. You always say I had been full of light, almost full, back in those days?_

_Suuuuure was, if that's true, f*** that light, or fire, or whatever you called it, it really blinded me to you, back then._

 

_Full of it, huh._

_Don't make me laugh._

 


	6. Interlude - Chapter 1.75 - How to Summon

**1.75 - Not Faux Amnesiac // Teach Him what the Teacher Doesn't Know Either??**

 

"Young man, you keep calling it a 'Blade'... is it the proper name, or don't you know the proper name?" Xehanort seemed thoughtful.

And young man? Young man?? Xehanort was barely two or three years older, what the heck. Honestly, Isa would end this conversation here and there, if only....

_If only you haven't gotten yourself stupidly trapped in some stupid book and I don't know if you're still alive, Lea, I can't tell, because there's no moon in your stupid wizard bear book, so I can't tell!!_

"It's... I saw an photo of mom and her two friends, and the old woman, their teacher. She seemed slightly similar to what Kairi may grew up to look."

"Indeed... Kairi's grandmother."

"What? Why?"

"Why? That, I do not know. A stray thought. A stray thought of an amnesiac man, who does not know his left from his right. Pardon me, and do continue, young man."

"O...Alright."

Maybe Lea was onto something, with that 'get it memorised' stuff. An amnesiac... the man before him, who felt ninety years old to the full moon even though he was, in truth, only twenty at most, surely (it was the first time in Isa's memory that the Moon was, quite frankly, mistaken, and so, should Isa stop trusting the moon from today on?).... that young man seemed infinitely sad to be lacking his memories.

And something like that - maybe it was good, in such case, that Lea had that silly habit of remembering all the stuff, important and trivial both.

"I- I don't know the blade's name, mister Xehanort, but it was shaped like

_please please stop wasting time xehanort and tell me how to save Lea_

a key, so, mabye a blade of key? A key blade? I don't know, I've never asked!"

Desperately.

But then

the Xehanort before him

felt despair as well.

(Or half of him did, according to the moon. Another half felt elation. But Isa, a minute ago, learned to stop trusting the moon that couldn't even tell te person's age.)

"Where are they??" Xehanort suddenly asked, and the moon insisted that it wasn't Xehanort, but of course it was, who else would it be?

(And before today, Isa would trust the moon with his own life, and Lea's, too. But no longer.)

"W-who?"

"Aqua and Ventus, where are they??"

Ah! Of course the knights of key-shaped-blade knew each other, Isa wasn't even surprised. Was Xehanort part of Ventus' trio? Surely he was, too look so desperate.

"Your friend, Ventus, is fine! He visited here and kicked Lea's a** with a toy version of key-shaped-blade, Xehanort, so, it's fine! And he even cheered up, Ven, I mean. And... Lea is Ventus' friend, now, so you should help Lea!"

"I... should help Ven's friend. Yes."

And there, the darkness swirled, but where did it come from, which half? Even the moon wasn't sure.

"This... go through here. To your friend. To Ven's friend. Jump through this, quickly, before I'm gone again!"

"Thank you, Xehanort!"

"N-no, no, no, don't call Xehanort---!"

Suddenly, the darkness disappeared and Isa almost cried in frustration. He was so close!

"Pardon my lapse in judgment, young man," Xehanort uttered, looking as if he was having a splitting headache and handling it with grace. "Before you go into Darkness, you'll need a piece of me inside you - to protect you from the Darkness."

Piece of... him? Ah, so the Moon wasn't mistaken. Alright, alright, he can just expel the piece after saving Lea, right? Dad said that Mom joked sometimes that Hearts can connect and disconnect, like computers. So he would just connect to Xehanort, save Lea, and then voila, disconnect immediately later!

"Alright, alright, let's join Hearts or whatever, you have my agreement, I don't know, should I sign somewhere? Just be quick about it!"

"I shall be quick, if you so wish. With pleasure. You may be easier than Braig - I hope that doesn't offend you, young man."

"Just do it, okay? I don't even know what you're talking about, and Lea's waiting for me!"

"That's right. Yes, we shall be quick about it. And young man, I remembered the Blade's name only thanks to you - the X-Blade. You have my gratitude - from the Heart. Which, in a minute, shall also be Yours."

"The Keyblade?" Isa asked, barely even listening. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose. Primitive, but makes sense."

 


	7. Chaper 3: Maybe if Lea Was Smart, He Would GET It - Such a Vain Hope

**Chapter 3**

**Maybe if Lea Was Smart, He Would GET It - Such a Vain Hope**

 

"Thanks."

It was the first word said this morning, and it disrupted the calmness that Isa - no, Saix, right? - was pretending to feel right now.

First word said this morning? What a subjective assessment, just because he was barely awake, Lea in his bed - no, they did not have sex. What for, when they probably wouldn't be able to feel much... No, not Lea in his bed - Axel in his bed. Not that there was much different, at first sight.

"If you're thanking me for yesterday's mission, you must be a masochist, L--Axel. You'd be dead if not for me, but I was the one who chose the mission for you."

"Naaah, it's not that at all! Merlin's book, got it memorised? I'm thanking you for Merlin's Book, Isa!"

"Why?"

Axel grumbled and sat up, accidently almost hitting I---Saix's chin, if Saix didn't move in time to avoid it. What was the damn idiot doing, dredging up that better-off-forgotten incident? **~~_What are you doing, Lea? Axel? Are you trying to hurt me, now? Not that I could feel it, even if you tried._~~**

"It's just... I had a dream tonight. About Merlin's Book, and our childhood antics. Silly, isn't it? But right now, I feel like eating sea salt ice cream with you. Why don't we go?"

"Go?" Isa tried to make his voice as cold as possible, knowing full where what 'go' meant, and where. Our spot in Radiant Garden, would surely be the moron's exact next words.

"You know, our spot in Radiant Gar--Hollow Bastion, Isa! For ice cream, like friends, dammit, _friends!!_ Got it---"

"No."

Le---Axel left I--Saix's room, slamming the door behind with full force, and with some accidental (or not, who could say, even Isa wasn't perfectly certain) fire. Weak one, thankfully. And naturally, Isa had a fire extinguisher in his room. Always had, always would. Some things could never change.

So why was he now smiling? If somebody was an idiot, then was it Lea? Or was it Isa?

 

*********************************************

~~_**If both, then aren't we truly doomed? Ph.** _ ~~

~~_************************************ _ ~~

 

"No" meant 'No'. "No" meant "No" to Hallow Bastion, not "No" to the sea salt ice cream. If Lea was smart... well, he never had been. How absurd.

 

******************************************

 

"No" meant "no" and nothing mo----Braig.

"A lover's spat?"

" _No._ And if I'm not mistaken, my room is _not_ in Agrabah, _Braig."_

"Heh. Teenage moon geezer, somebody's getting confused, here, and that's not me."

Isa shrugged and turned away. "I do think it's you."

Braig laughed, and Isa remembered, with a dread, that he should've said 'Xigbar', was that what it was about?? "As if! So confused that you don't even remember my proper name. Not that you remember Flamesilocks', either, most of the time!"

Cold. How could the world suddenly feel so cold, when ~~_**he had no Heart to feel it with?**_~~

"Even if you tell Xemnas, nothing will happen."

"As if. Why should I tell him anything, when you've told him yourself, a second ago?"

"What do you---"

Ah, he was gone.

What did he mean? Xemnas wasn't here. How could Saix have told him anything when he wasn't in the same room? Xigbar was trying to unnerve him again, and that was all. Axel would probably joke that Xigbar's pathetic unnerving act was in some way connected to Xemnas' nefarious schemes - there were some nefarious schemes, only they nature hasn't been quite revealed yet - but that would only be a joke, because... because...

Saix grabbed a page from a diary, and wrote - no, Isa wrote - _Tomorrow I'll have sea-salt ice cream with ~~Ax~~ :Lea, definitely, no matter what, only not in Hollow Bastion._

 ~~Good. Now he wouldn't~~ forget---but again, why would he forget? Sometimes, he doubted his own... Isa doubted his own--- sanity, if only slightly.

All began with Merlin's Book. In other word, if Isa ever became insane, it was Merlin's and Axe---Lea's fault. Not Isa's. Not Isa's.

Why, then... that felt like an honest lie? Moon his witness, he was lying. What about, he wasn't even sure. Axel, at least, certainly knew when he was lying, and when he was not.

 

Isa---Saix------envied him that. So much that--

 

~~**_Enough. Concentrate on the task on hand. Saïx. Saïx, concentrate. This helps, but this also hinders, so do concentrate._ ** ~~


	8. Chapter 4:  Radiant Garden, Day Seven

**Chapter 4**

**Radiant Garden, Day Seven // Nonetheless, Her Name Wasn't Luna**

 

_Land af Departure_

_Day 666_

_I'm tear_

 

 

_I am_

 

_I'm tearing them aut. All the prebious aunes. All the prebious pages._

 

_Eberybody iz SELFISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

 

_WELL THEN_

 

_SO_

 

 

_AM_

 

_I_

 

_THE_

 

_MOON_

 

_GODDESS_

 

_DIANA_

 

_HELP_

_ME, SO AM I!!!!_

 

_Would that I could hab her arrowz and shoot throuth these pages till there's nothing left of them, in the Worlds and in my Heart._

 

_I WOULD_

 

_I'm leabing thiz page intact. In here and in my Heart. So that my resolb won't be shayken._

 

_Because EVERYBODY IZ SELFISH!!!! AND LYING. AND BRAGGING AF GRANDIOSE AND PATHOS, AF TWO EXTREMES AF THEM._

 

_Eberybody iz selfish._

_so if I am too, that iz fain._

 

_**************************_

 

_Radiant Garden_

_Day 1_

 

_I did not know why would the handsome and meybe not bery smart man in distress accuse me of  being possibly an Eyngel of Death or a Goddess af the Sea and Divination. So I axed around, and now I know. In ancient beliebs af thiz World called Radiant Garden, not bery beliebd nowadayz, Eyngel of Death does hab in hiz hand the Key to Laif and Death. And the man mistook mine for thiz! It iz even more funnier about Goddess af the Sea and Divination mistake. When I axed about that other people (I did not want to ax the handsome man whom I rezcuud, he woz too in shoked), I lafd when they answerd, those who knew at least! It so turns out, the Goddess af the Sea and af the Divination (single Goddess af two af them, she apparently is, impressib, bery impressib) : her hair was said by Eynsients to be Blue! As my hair iz, and naubody born in Radiant Garden iz. Hi hi.  
_

 

_******_

 

_Radiant Garden_

_Day 2_

 

_I forgot to mention, dear Diary, what peril w_ _oz the handsome stranger in distress in, now I recall. And then I fot, that iz the shaym, and so, I will so mention so nau. Here and in my Heart, bekoz I laiked saybing him. Not just bekoz he iz handsome, and bekoz he called me an Eyngel and a Goddess (of Divination, too! How amusing! I do l_

 

_Not just bekoz af that._

_The handsome stranger, I saybd him from a Heartless. A Heartless that keym dogging my stepz, so if didn't destroy it, that would sort of make it az if it woz my fault if the handsome, eazly impressed stranger lost hiz Heart._

 

_He axed me on a "deyt". I refuzd till I check the meaning of thiz new word. In a Dikshionary, just to be bery, bery shure and sertain._

 

_******************_

 

_Radiant Garden_

_Day 7_

 

_I checkd bery carefully, to be quiet shure._

 

_The handsome stranger who may be a little smart, afterall (he knowz old beliebz that only 5 % af People around do know!) and who iz no longer in dizstress iz courting me, properly courting me! Me!_

 

_I hab tried courting men befor, but neber aunce did any court me first. I'm bery, bery, bery happy. Do you know that, Diary? For the first time in years, I feel bery happy and I'm even onest!_

_I will let myselb be courted by the man who kan't even fight one single Heartless on hiz awn. I will. Because somehow, it made me feel glad. I will let thiz man court me._

 

_I will ask hiz name tomorrow and then let him court me if he will._

_I will spend some time with him, if he iz brayb enouf to continue courting me, and if my Moon Goddess Diana agreez._

 

_*************_

_Radiant Garden_

_Day 8_

 

 _Hiz name iz_ _Adil. I laik it. If I eber hab a child, I'll ask Adil far naym propositions._

_The waey he courtz me iz neat. Slow. I do not maind that._

_He sow me look at the Moon, thiz World's Moon, with affektion. He axed me then whether my name wozn't Luna._

_I think he maybe iz thinking I am Diana, now, from what I hab learned. I do not maind that, I did not asnwer bekoz I will let him think that - or not - for a week. Why not? It meykz me feel olmost giddy._

 

 

_*************************_

 

So her name wasn't Luna, he thought, reclining in his bed later that night, so late that it was almost next morning. He wasn't surprised.

Surely, her name was something even prettier. So beautiful that he wouldn't be able to imagine it until he heard it. Whenever that would be, as Luna seemed a little fickle.

 However, he knew now, that it wasn't only the heat of the moment. That his feeling wasn't only gratitude for the otherworldly key-bladed she-warrior who shone in the Darkness and made the world shine again.

No, it wasn't just that. It turned out... yes, today it turned out that she was just as amazing without the key-shaped blade in hand as she was with it.

He... he was beginning to suspect that if he won't stop himself, he would begin to fall in love with her. And that would be a disaster: she came here so suddenly, wouldn't she leave just as suddenly?

In a flurry of suddeness and awe-inspiring radiant light.

 _My week-after-not-dying-from-a-monster resolution,_ he thought, _not to fall love with Luna._

 He sighed. Maybe there was a reason he had never been able to keep any serious resolution, New Year ones or otherwise: maybe something was fundamentally wrong with him.


End file.
